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is credible that the wall exceeded the towers in height. Jer. iv. 18. NAGHANG NGAL LIBBECH, it reacheth unto thine heart. You may add other instances from Glassius. As therefore the use of this particle is very extensive, we have no reason to restrain its signification to owing or being due, which seems less adapted to this place.

XV. I speak not these things, with a view to detract any thing from the due praises of the very learned interpreter, to whom I even profess myself greatly indebted; but because nothing is dearer to me, than to search out the true meaning of the spirit of God speaking in the scriptures. While I am wholly intent upon this, I cannot avoid sometimes examining the opinions of others; even of those for whom I have the greatest veneration. Faith is none of those things, which may be imposed by any human authority: neither is any injury done even to the greatest of men, when we declare our dissent in a modest manner. Whether we have done so here or not, must be left to the determination of the impartial reader; who may also judge, whether, by these observations, I deserved so furious a shower of blustering language, as the very famous person Dr. John van der Waeyen has been pleased to pour down upon me in Summa theol. Christ, lib. i. c. 4. § 267. & seq. He very much complains, that I called that explication of the celebrated Cocceius harsh and forced, and that the words of the psalm were wrested to that meaning. This, I own, I had formerly wrote, out of my simplicity; nor did I imagine, there was either reproach or injury contained in these words. But there is no force of argument in the tartness of language. That not the least appearance of that may remain, I now alter it, and instead of wrested say harsh, not running so smoothly. The rest I cancel, I freely forgive the ill language of my reprover, as becomes a Christian. It does not belong to him, but to our common Lord, to pass a judgment on my inten*Phil, sacr. p. 773,

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tion. As to the subject itself, I beseech the reader, to compare my reasonings with his; and if he thinks, that mine are solidly confuted, I am not against his differing, in every respect, from me. It appears otherwise to me and the simple explication of the words, which I maintain, with the generality of expositors, began the more to please me, the more I saw my reprover stand in need, of such a compass of words, and so far-fetched and intricate subtleties. I have no incli nation minutely to consider the rest. Each one has his own temper, his own way of writing which if I cannot commend, I endeavor to bear with. But I return from this unwilling digression.

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XVI. As the doctrine of the compact between the Father and the Son is so often and so expressly delivered in scripture, that it is unjustly traduced as a new and late invention. Though I find few among the more ancient, who have professedly handled this subject; yet I see some of the greatest divines have sometimes made mention of this compact. I say nothing now of Arminius, who does not carelessly discourse of this compact, in his oration for the degree of Doctor; from which the very accurate Amesius produces and commends some things. Amesius himself charges a certain distinction of the Remonstrants with this absurdity, that it denies, that the covenant entered into with Christ (He shall see his seed, and the pleasure. of the Lord shall prosper in his hand) had been ratified." Gomarus, treating of the baptism of Christ,* says, that it was the "sign and seal of the covenant between God and Christ; namely, that God would be his God, and the bestower of salvation; but he himself was bound to perform obedience from a principle of perpetual gratitude." In like manner, on the circumcision of Christ,† he says, that it was "a sign and seal of the covenant with God: which covenant consisted in this; partly that God was the God of Christ, according to the general promise, made also to * In Matth. iii. 13. † In Luke ii. 21.

him, Gen. xvii. 7. as to the seed of Abraham, Gal. iii. 16. and according to the singular character given of him, Psal. xlv. 7: Heb. i. 9. partly, that Christ was bound to obey the will of God, John vi. 38. Matth. v. 17." See his Disp. de merito Christi, § 1. The very learned Cloppenburg* not only mentions this subject, but fully and accurately handles it. The very famous Voetiust says, "He (Christ) was subject for us to a special law of paying our debt by a condign punishment, as our Mediator and Surety, according to the tenor of the covenant entered into with the Father." Essenius, formerly his scholar, and afterwards his colleague, says "The federal sealing of the divine promise did also really take place in Christ, according to Is. liii. 10. 11." Dr. Owen handles this very subject at large, on Heb. tom. ii. exercit. iv. p. 49. Nor was this doctrine unknown to the Popish doctors. Tirinus on Is. liii. 11. thus comments, that the prophet there explains the compact agreed on between the Father and Christ," by which, on account of the sufferings and death of Christ, redemption, justification, and glofication are decreed to be the rewards of all those who faithfully adhere to Christ. Whence it appears, that these sentiments concerning the compact between the Father and Son, are not to be stigmatized with the brand of singularity.

* Eisput. iii. de fœdere Dei. † Disput. t. ii. p. 266 De subjectione Christi ad legem. c. x. § 2.

CHAP. III.

The Nature of the Compact between the Father and the Son, more fully explained

As

S the compact between the Father and the Son is the foundation of the whole of our salvation, it will not be improper to stop here a little, and, in our further meditation, enquire, 1. From whence the beginning of this compact ought to be taken, and in what periods of time it was completed. 2. What the law of the covenant contains, how far, and to what it binds the Son. 3. Whether the Son could not have engaged in this compact, or have withdrawn himself from it, and had no more to do with it. 4. What and how great a reward was promised to the Son, to be obtained in virtue of the compact.

II. I consider three periods, as it were, of this compact. Its commencement is to be sought in the eternal counsel of the adorable Trinity in which the Son of God was constituted by the Father, with the approbation of the Holy Spirit, the Saviour of mankind, on this condition, that in the fulness of time, he should be made of a woman, and made under the law; which the Son undertook to perform. Peter has a view to this when he says,* that Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world. To this purpose is also, what the Supreme Wisdom testifies concerning itself,† I was set up [anointed] from everlasting; that is, by. my own, and the will of my Father, which is one and the same, I was appointed to the performance of the mediatorial office in time. Paul likewise declares, that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Consequently, Christ himself was constituted from everlasting the head of those that were to be saved, and they were given unto him,§ for whom he was to merit salvation, and in whom he was to be glo1 Pet i. 20. † Prov. viii. 23. Eph. i. 4. John xvii 6.

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rified and admired. From this constitution, the Son from everlasting bore a peculiar relation to those that were to be saved. Hence the book of life is by a special appropriation ascribed to the Lamb,* as containing. a description of the peculiar people assigned to the Lamb from all eternity. Hence also it was, that God, in his amazing wisdom, so ordered many things in man's state of innocence, that the attentive remembrance of them after the fall, and the comparing them with those things which were afterwards revealed, might have reminded man of this divine counsel; as we have shewn, above, book i. chap. vi. § 3.

III. The second period of this covenant I place in that intercession of Christ, by which, immediately upon the fall of man, he offered himself to God, now offended by sin, actually to peform those things, to which he had engaged himself from eternity; saying, Thou hast given them to me, I will make satisfaction for them and so making way for the word of grace to be. declared to, and the covenant of grace to be made with them. Thus Christ was actually constituted Mediator, and declared as such immediately after the fall; and having undertaken the suretiship, he began to act many things belonging to the offices of a Mediator. As a Prophet, and the interpreter of the divine will, he even then, by his Spirit, revealed those things which relate to the salvation of the elect, and by his ministers published them.† Nay, he himself sometimes appeared in the character of an Angel, instructing his people in the counsel of God. As a king, he gathered his church, and formed to himself a people, in whom he might reign by his word and spirit. For it was the Son of God, who said to Israel, Exod. xix. 6. Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and who, with more than royal pomp, published his law on mount Sinai,+ and whom Isaiah saw sitting as king upon a throne.§ As a Priest, he took upon himself the sins of the elect, *Rev. xiii. 8, † Isa. xlviii. 15. 1 Pet. i. 11. & iii. 19. Acts vii. 38. Chap. vi. compared with John xii. 41.

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